Intel's i7 8700 has been pictured

The socket is the same, but there are clear differences between Coffee Lake and Kaby Lake

Intel's i7 8700 has been pictured

It has already been well reported that Intel's upcoming 8000 series of desktop CPUs will only be usable on new Intel 300-series motherboards, despite the fact that the LGA 1051 socket will be used with both current-gen and previous generation CPUs.

This has caused a lot of uproar within the PC community, with many stating that Intel is denying users of older boards the ability to upgrade to Coffee Lake.

In the eyes of consumers, socket-socket compatibility should mean allow older motherboards should compatible with all future CPUs on that socket, or at least be compatible with the next generation. With Kaby Lake being less than a year old, it is understandable why consumers are annoyed at Intel, requiring the purchase of a new motherboard if Kaby Lake users wish to upgrade to Coffee Lake.

While the pin layout of the LGA 1151 socket remains the same we can see much denser circuitry with Intel's 8000-series CPU, which is understandable due to the CPU's increased core count and complexity.

At this time we have no confirmation why Coffee Lake requires new motherboards, though a possible theory is that the 300-series will utilise different pins for different purposes, allowing Intel to fit a 6-core CPU design onto the socket while simultaneously breaking support for previous LGA 1151 CPUs.

Only time will tell exactly why Intel's 300-series motherboards are required for Coffee Lake CPU, though it seems to be something that is more complex than what can be achieved with a BIOS update.

Most Recent Comments

Yeah it is more complex it is called greed.So complex no one can be sure when he see it.The only reason i see a 6 core part to be not compatible with older mobos is power drain exceeding the power design of the older architecture.But in this case we are talking again for entire generation almost same as the previous one not being compatible with the previos architecuter mobos.

Yeah it is more complex it is called greed.So complex no one can be sure when he see it.The only reason i see a 6 core part to be not compatible with older mobos is power drain exceeding the power design of the older architecture.But in this case we are talking again for entire generation almost same as the previous one not being compatible with the previos architecuter mobos.

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